Tesla Motors, the manufacturer of the Tesla Roadster, has filed suit against Henrik Fisker and Bernhard Koehler (yes that Fisker) claiming the duo stole confidential design information and trade secrets while working for Tesla. We're not trying to pick sides around these parts, but the Tesla claims make some sense.
Back in the development days of the Tesla, Henrik Fisker was hired to do the body design on a four-seater code-named the White Star. Tesla forked over $875,000 for Fisker's work. The lawsuit continues to divulge that Fisker had no experience with hybrids prior to working for Tesla and essentially sabotaged the project, took his earnings and developed the Fisker Karma, a similar sporty hybrid.
The story gets a little peculiar on Tesla's end after Fisker left the company to make his own hybrid. Tesla said that they didn't want to use Fisker's design because he was going to make his own car and become the competition. This set the company back three to six months in production. If Tesla had a head start on the design-work why didn't they just progress with Fisker's current design and beat him to the show floor? Tesla continues to say that Fisker's work was substandard, so it's understandable, but they didn't have to scrap the design completely, right? Also, why would Tesla shell out nearly a million on a substandard designer with no hybrid experience?
This is the point where we would initially speculate on how the lawsuit will affect production of the Tesla Whitestar and the Fisker Karma, but who are we kidding. These two are perpetually in that yes, but no, but maybe someday phase of production development. [NY Times]